Do names matter what culture your're in?

[FriendlyShadow]

Like if an american has an irish sounding name or a mexican having a chinese sounding name. Does it really matter. I was thinking of naming my characters in a story called Mairead, but when i looked up the origin it said irish and my character is american. Will it make a difference? Or should I use an american name instead.

 

[Klonoa]

In principle not, but you can tell the person's social-economic class if it's a foreign name mangled over (i.e. Yhonny instead of Johnny)

 

[Isolated_Writer]

since America is basically a nation of immigrants, it's not uncommon to have a "foreign" name. It really depends on your characters background I guess. Is her family from Ireland? Was she named for his mothers favorite poet? Like the name though

 

[Flanscho]

When you hear or read a name of someone you don't know yet, it immediately makes you think of what the person could be like, whether you want to or not. So names do matter.

Still, it's very different for each country, of course. In Germany, the rules are very strict. For example, the office first didn't want to allow my parents to give my name. My grandma was russian, so my parents wanted to give me a russian name. The name sounds as if it would end on a vowel. Nearly all german names ending on a vowel are names for women, and the law says that you have to be able to identify a persons gender by the name alone.

In England it's different. There you can give yourself about any name you want to, without much of a hassle and without it costing much money either. Go there, pay a few bucks, pick nearly any name you like, and there you go.